Press Statement
…Urges UN, Others To list Buhari Administration For Crime Against
Humanity
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) applauds the resolution by the
British parliament to impose travel restriction and Visa ban to
officials of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led All Progressives
Congress (APC) administration involved in the violation of human rights,
including the shooting and killing of unarmed and peaceful demonstrators
in our country.
The PDP however urges the United Nations and other international bodies
to immediately list indicted officials of President Muhammadu Buhari’s
government for the widespread crime against humanity going on in our
country in the last five years.
Our party also urges the British Government to extend the proposed
sanctions to include the freezing of assets and funds belonging to such
officials and their families in the United Kingdom.
We also call on other countries, including United States, France, the
United Arab Emirates, South Africa among others to impose similar
sanctions against indicted officials of the Buhari administration for
human rights violations and crime against humanity.
Such sanctions should also be imposed on officials indicted for
undermining our democracy and electoral system.
The international community must call out President Buhari, as the buck
stops on his table, as the commander-in-chief, under whose watch, human
rights violations including arbitrary arrests and detention in
dehumanizing facilities, widespread extrajudicial killings, sudden
disappearances of dissenting voices, disregard to rule of law,
disobedience to court orders and foisting of siege mentality on the
citizenry, have become the order of the day.
Indeed, the manifest use of brute force, including the deployment of the
military with live ammunition, in addition to recruiting of armed thugs
to attack and kill innocent Nigerian youths, who were in peaceful
demonstration against widespread police brutality and other systemic
injustices, underscores the horrible situation in Nigeria under
President Buhari as detailed in earlier reports by Amnesty International
and US Department of State among other international bodies.
Is it not frightening that the Buhari Presidency has failed to come
clean on who ordered the deployment of troops to Lekki Toll Gate in
Lagos, where unarmed demonstrators were shot and killed even while
waving our national flag and singing our nation’s anthem?
Is it not equally frightening that government has also failed to explain
how armed thugs were seen being brought in security vans to unleash
violence on demonstrators in Abuja and other parts of our country?
Rather than providing answers to these troubling questions, the Federal
Government is desperate to gag Nigerians, muzzle the press, shut down
the social media and even threatening the international media including
CNN for carrying out an investigative report on the Lekki killing, while
its officials continue to make contradicting claims on the matter.
Moreover, the administration had turned a deaf ear to the demand for an
independent National Truth Commission on the killings. Such stance only
points to desperation for a huge cover up in the face of demand for
answers by Nigerians and the international community.
Our party therefore urges the international community not to relent in
standing for the Nigerian people at this critical time in our national
history, particularly in ensuring respect to the rights of citizens and
the sanctity of our electoral system.
Signed:
Kola Ologbondiyan
National Publicity Secretary
